‘Furious 7’ Tops Billion Dollar Take in Record Time

Furious 7, the latest movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, has topped the billion dollar take at the box office in record time. The movie, the first one by Universal to gross over $1 billion, did so in just 17 days. That makes Furious 7 the fastest flick yet to reach the $1 billion dollar mark.

While Furious 7 is doing great in North America, where it has, so far, grossed $273.7 million in 15 days, the majority of the $1 billion has come from overseas. There, Furious 7 has grossed over $735 million. It is the 20th film ever in history to have earned over a billion dollars.

Furious 7 beat the previous record of reaching $1 billion in 19 days, jointly held by three movies, The Avengers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Avatar. The combined take of the seven films in the Fast & Furious franchise, according to Universal, is $3.392 billion.

Both fan loyalty to the Fast & Furious franchise and the star-studded cast are two of the reasons why Furious 7 broke over the billion dollar box office take in record time. Also, the excellent soundtrack has helped, along with the fact that the movie contains some of the last film footage ever filmed of actor Paul Walker, and the movie is action-packed, from start to finish.

Yet another reason that the movie has smashed the record and became the fastest movie of all time to gross over a billion dollars is that it has not had all that much strong competition to challenge it. The next potential blockbuster that might knock Furious 7 from its hold on the top spot at the box office will probably be Avengers: Age of Ultron, on May 1.

Universal has been around for 103 years and has had many box office successes that have earned a lot of money at the box office, such as Jurassic Park, the Jason Bourne movies, and Despicable Me. However, until Furious 7, none of the company’s previous movies has managed to gross over $1 billion.

According to NBC Universal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer in a blog post, the success of Furious 7 grossing over a billion dollars “marks a significant milestone in our history.” Furious 7 breaking all previous records of movies that have earned over $1 billion is another big reason for Meyer and other execs at Universal to celebrate. The last movie to earn over $1 billion was Transformers: Age Of Extinction, from 2014.

Furious 7 is Universal’s biggest hit to date, and it has a very good chance of remaining the Number One movie at the box office this weekend. The movie, starring Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, will likely climb even higher on the all-time biggest money-making movies list than the number 20 spot, where it currently rests. However, with some other potential mega-hit movies due out in 2015, like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, 007’s Spectre, the last Hunger Games flick, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it is still possible that the latest Fast & Furious movie might not even make it as being one of the Top Three money-making movies of 2015.